(Courtesy Visit Brussels)

Brussels Airlines’ newest icon plane honors the Atomium

Designed and built for the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958 and created to honor the metals industry and the atomic era, the futuristic-looking Atomium monument is still around.

The structure wasn’t supposed to last beyond the fair’s run, but today it is a tourist destination, event venue, museum and the iconic symbol of Brussels and Belgium.

Now it’s also the inspiration for the newest livery in Brussels Airlines’ Belgian Icons series.

This livery design, by Belgian architect Thomas Faes, of Faes Architecture, was the winner in a Brussels Airlines contest that drew more than 900 designs seeking to capture the ‘essence’ of Belgium.

To transform the design into an airplane paint job required over 400 liters of paint and took about 2,400 hours to complete.

And while the outside of this Airbus A320 is pretty swanky, take a look at the inside of the aircraft. It tells the story of the Atomium structure with images of original sketches, historical photos and present-day imagery.

The other Belgian Icons airplanes

The Brussels Airlines Icons liveries have paid tribute to a wide variety of icons in Belgian culture, including the Smurfs characters and artists Magritte and Bruegel. Several of the special liveries have been retired, but liveries honoring Tintin, the Red Devils and Red Flames men’s and women’s soccer teams, and the Tomorrowland festival are still in motion.